Can You Pursue Compensation If There Was No Collision?
While a motorcycle brings a great feeling of freedom on the road—one of its major appeals—it’s also easier to have a no-contact accident on a motorcycle, often with serious consequences. These types of crashes stem from a variety of factors:
- another motorist cuts into your lane, forcing you down or off the road;
- another motorist suddenly brushes up next to you or fails to obey a traffic sign or signal, forcing evasive action that causes you to lose control;
- water, loose gravel, uneven lanes or potholes cause you to skid or lose traction; or
- your bike breaks down, leading to a fall.
In these situations, you may suffer serious and catastrophic injury but without impacting or colliding with another vehicle. Can you seek compensation from another party, even though no one hit you? Fortunately, the answer is yes.
Recovering for Your Losses Based on a Claim of Negligence
In a motorcycle-accident-injury claim, as with most other personal injury claims, your right to recover for your losses is almost always based on a legal theory of negligence. To prove negligence in court, you must demonstrate that:
- the defendant (the accused wrongdoer) failed to act as a reasonable person would;
- the failure to act reasonably caused an accident; and
- you suffered actual losses because of the accident.
The law does not identify specific acts considered unreasonable. Instead, that determination is left for the jury to decide based on the specific facts of the case.
To establish cause, you must show two things:
- that the accident would not have occurred without the defendant’s wrongful conduct; and
- that the accident and injuries suffered were “reasonably foreseeable” consequences of defendant’s failure to act reasonably.
Under the law, you may seek damages for injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident, even though there was no contact or impact. The jury will carefully consider defendant’s actions, determining whether they were reasonable and whether they caused you to lose control or otherwise crash.
Contact the Law Offices of David J. Karbasian, PC
Send us an e-mail today or call us at 856-667-4666 / 856-600-HURT to schedule an appointment. We are currently communicating with clients by phone, text message or videoconference. Evening and weekend consultations are available upon request.
